


The man she fell in love with

by Taaya



Category: Trollhunters
Genre: F/M, Stricklake - Freeform, post series 3, self doubt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 15:03:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14956878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taaya/pseuds/Taaya
Summary: Gunmar and Morgana are dead, so everything should be well, shouldn’t it? But Stricklander feels lost. He just can’t picture a happy future for himself.





	The man she fell in love with

Stricklander looked down at the cradle stone full of human children and sighed. He knew what he had to do. And what price it would cost him. As always, doing the right thing was not going the easy way, but taking the hard road full of sacrifice. 

Barbara stood next to him, waving her son and his friends goodbye. Although she was so close, he felt as if they were miles apart. Worlds between them. 

When the kids were gone - or home in Toby‘s case - he brought Barbara back home and just stood there, green, troll-like and feeling lost.

„Walt?“ She came closer, her blue eyes resting on him. „You are so quiet. Is everything all right?“

He stopped himself from snorting. Almost everything was wrong. Jim had left his mother, the woman who had been hurt that badly again and again. And although he understood why Jim had to go, he feared what that did to Barbara over time. Then there was the stone full of children. They had to find a way to deal with them, and he assumed that Barbara would want to take care of some of them herself, especially since some of them, maybe even most, had no living relatives. And finally there was himself. „I am wrong. Look at me. Now I won’t be able to change to my human form ever again, now that my familiar is here in our world.“

„Your familiar?“

He studied the cradle stone for some time until he found the face he was looking for and pointed it out to his girlfriend. „This is the real Waltolomew Strickler. I only took his form. And the magic could only work as long as he was in this other realm.“ 

„The darklands?“

Despite himself Stricklander had to smile. Barbara had learned so much about his world so quickly. She was a keen student. „Exactly. And now that he‘s here, I won’t … ever be able to change back. The man you fell in love with, does no longer exist.“

She kept quiet for a while, simply taking in the sight of him. „The man I fell in love with had been a lie anyway“, she finally stated. 

He hung his head, wanted to protest, if only half-heartedly. 

„But the man I love has wings. I‘ve known this before. I just learned it a few days ago, but I didn’t walk away from you, did I?“

„Even if you wanted, the last few days had been to intense to find the time to…“ Break my heart. „Leave me. Not that you would have to. You never took me back, officially.“

Barbara sighed. „You are right, the last days have been a nightmare. And that you wanted to sacrifice the world for my life has not been your best moment.“

He took his time, watching his hands from every angle, careful not to look up. She was right. It had not only been selfish, it had been stupid. He could not have known that they would be able to win this war, so he should have stopped it altogether. But then again there were other changelings as well, one day Morgana would have been freed anyway. So he could not regret his actions too much.

„It will take work. You will make mistakes and so will I. Unfortunately this is how relationships are. But one thing will never, never be an issue between us. I don’t care if you are green, white, or wearing zebra stripes. And I don’t mind you being a troll. There will be days when I miss those beautiful green eyes. But I will never not love you just because of the way you look like.“

Now Stricklander looked up again and was greeted by warm lips on his.

„It feels differently“, she pointed out. „But not bad.“

He sighed. Different.

Barbara understood and looked at him. „Walter, don’t worry about everything. I can’t promise you forever, but let us just try.“

„That’s all I dream of“, he replied, but the dark thoughts wouldn’t go completely. And how long would it take for her to get tired of his stony skin? Only time could tell. But until the day she would get sick of him, he could at least enjoy their relationship. He loved her more than life, so he could at least try to make the best of it, no matter how much he doubted his worthiness.

**Author's Note:**

> I‘m thinking about continuing this and trying to tell how Stricklander and Barbara build their life (or struggle with it?). But I‘m not sure. There are just so few Stricklake fics, that I feel I need to write for those two.


End file.
